Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 [p.138] THE SITUATION CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS There was some feeling of offense both in the eastern part of North Carolina and in the Holston and Cumberland communities that the new district should be given the name of the representative of a government which had shown its hostility to the people of the United States and especially to those of the western settlements. In thus reasoning they failed to comprehend the farsighted policy of conciliation which actuated James Robertson, who for the sake of his people sought the friendship of Spain through Miro, her governor, and through McGillivray, chief of the Creeks, with both of whom he conducted a notable correspondence. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 [p.138] THE SITUATION CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS The truth is that the western people were in a precarious situation. For years Spain had had them harassed by the Indians in the effort to drive them back to the eastern escarpment of the Allegheny Mountains. The effort had failed and the policy of Spain changed. Miro was now apparently seeking the friendship of the colonists in the hope of attracting them to move from the protection of the United States to that of Spain. The hope was so expressed by Miro that many of the settlers would move into the territory governed by him. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 [p.138] THE SITUATION CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS In the fall of 1787, Robertson and Hays had presented a memorial to the General Assembly of North Carolina in which one paragraph was as follows: Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 [p.138] THE SITUATION CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS They and their constituents, they say, have cheerfully endured the most unconquerable difficulties in settling the western country, in full confidence that they be enabled to send their produce to market through the rivers which water the country; but they now have the mortification, not only to be excluded from that channel of commerce by a foreign nation, but the Indians are rendered more hostile through the influence of that very nation, probably with a view to drive them from the country, as they claim the whole of the soil. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 [p.138] THE SITUATION CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS No relief, however, was extended; and, while the leaders, like Robertson, exerted their best efforts to restrain the most impetuous and turbulent spirits, nevertheless throughout the entire trans-Allegheny region there was a feeling of discontent and unrest, not only against the State of North Carolina, but especially a feeling of dissatisfaction with the United States Government which permitted the restraint of trade by Spain. Footnote Putnam's History of Middle Tennessee. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 [p.138] THE SITUATION CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS In June, 1784, another link in the chain of Spanish intrigue was forged. This was the meeting at Pensacola of the three Spanish governors who made a treaty with the powerful Creek chief, Alexander McGillivray (or McGilveray), an implied agreement to drive off the settlers upon the Cumberland, or to destroy them utterly. (This wish and purpose were subsequently avowed in correspondence between the parties.)16 Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 GENESIS OF THE CONSPIRACYIn an article entitled The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee, published in the Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, Dec. 1917, Dr. Archibald Henderson says: * * * The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee has received comparatively little notice; and the printed materials on the subject are few and chaotic. The Gardoqui MSS. in the Durrett Collection, the Gayarré Transcripts in the Louisiana Historical Society, and scattered letters in the Archives of the Indes at Seville, I find, furnish material for a consecutive narrative, and enable us at last to gain a comprehensive view of the Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee.17 This alliance tended to thwart the policy of Robertson which was to mold relations with all in such a way that the people of the Cumberland community might be permitted to manage their own affairs in their own way; encourage immigration; strengthen their own hands; preserve the friendship of the Spaniards and gain that of the savage tribes. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 GENESIS OF THE CONSPIRACYIn an article entitled The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee, published in the Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, Dec. 1917, Dr. Archibald Henderson says: * * * The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee has received comparatively little notice; and the printed materials on the subject are few and chaotic. The Gardoqui MSS. in the Durrett Collection, the Gayarré Transcripts in the Louisiana Historical Society, and scattered letters in the Archives of the Indes at Seville, I find, furnish material for a consecutive narrative, and enable us at last to gain a comprehensive view of the Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee.17 page 139 The feelings of dissatisfaction referred to were at their very apex when Don Diego de Gardoqui came to the United States in 1785, as the chargé d'affairs for Spain. In his negotiations with Jay, who strongly proposed that the United States relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five years in return for other advantages, notwithstanding the fact that Spain had arrested [p.139] our traders in their passage down the river, virtually stopping all traffic to the Gulf, he quickly discovered that the fighting spirit of the frontiersmen had been aroused and that schemes had actually been proposed for the capture of New Orleans. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 GENESIS OF THE CONSPIRACYIn an article entitled The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee, published in the Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, Dec. 1917, Dr. Archibald Henderson says: * * * The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee has received comparatively little notice; and the printed materials on the subject are few and chaotic. The Gardoqui MSS. in the Durrett Collection, the Gayarré Transcripts in the Louisiana Historical Society, and scattered letters in the Archives of the Indes at Seville, I find, furnish material for a consecutive narrative, and enable us at last to gain a comprehensive view of the Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee.17 Gardoqui was keen to take advantage of the separatist sentiment of the western settlements in behalf of Spain. The settlers on the Holston had seceded and formed the State of Franklin, and, Gardoqui thought, were plastic material. He needed an agent to work with them and with the people of the Cumberland settlements relative to an alliance with Spain. He selected as his emissary Dr. James White, who, on November 29, 1786, had been appointed by the United States Government as superintendent for the Southern Department, and instructed by him to make secret proposals on behalf of Spain to the leaders of the disaffected districts and to act in concert with Don Estévan Miro, governor of Louisiana in carrying out the purpose of his mission. Footnote Dr. James White is often confused with General James White, the founder of Knoxville and father of Hugh Lawson White. Dr. James White was elected to represent Davidson County in the Legislative Assembly of the Territory in 1794, and on September 3rd of the same year was elected a Delegate to Congress. (See Ramsey, p. 628.) In 1799 he removed to Louisiana. His grandson, Edward Douglas White, was chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Tennessee the Volunteer State 17691923: Volume 1 GENESIS OF THE CONSPIRACYIn an article entitled The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee, published in the Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, Dec. 1917, Dr. Archibald Henderson says: * * * The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee has received comparatively little notice; and the printed materials on the subject are few and chaotic. The Gardoqui MSS. in the Durrett Collection, the Gayarré Transcripts in the Louisiana Historical Society, and scattered letters in the Archives of the Indes at Seville, I find, furnish material for a consecutive narrative, and enable us at last to gain a comprehensive view of the Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee.17 Doctor White18 visited Tennessee and interviewed prominent men in both the State of Franklin and the Cumberland settlement, including John Sevier, Joseph Martin, Anthony Bledsoe, and James Robertson. He wrote to Governor Miro on the 18th of April, 1789, as follows: ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com